Schott’s Original Miscellany. I was a strange third grader, and I’m happy to report that I have grown stranger since.

Inkheart was the book that got me to love reading.And the ironic part is, the audio book book is not available anymore (think its because each chapter starts with an experpt from another book, so rights issues come into play) so now Im searching everywhere for real life Inkheart similar to the characters looking for fictional Inkheart.

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

I was 11 when the book came out, so I was the perfect demographic for it. That book played such a pivotal role in my life at that age. I remember being excited for the next books and waiting for their releases.

I’m 41 now and I still will pick up any book by Pullman and read it. He is my very first favorite author.

I see many of my favorites, so I’ll throw down the first book I really remember loving as a kid because it is so touching:

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Jurassic Park

Chicken Soup for the Soul

An English book of short stories.

The Book Thief

As a small child: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

As a teen: Lightning by Dean R. Koontz

As a high-schooler: Island by Aldous Huxley

There was a YA book called The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray that I remember really capturing my imagination when I was 10 or 11. I think I must have read Eragon around that time too and really enjoyed it.

I think I started diving into the Discworld series shortly after that.

It’s a toss up between Crispin and House of the Scorpion… I read them back to back and they defined everything I liked going forward

Where Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. I read that book over and over wore out two copies. Funny I went from that to The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. I did the same with that book. I also would check out any Hank the Cowdog books that our school library had.

Truly tough question. Because as a kid I feel in love with any book I picked up and read. To me books are magical. You can get lost in a world and become part of it.

As a kid, the first book that really got me hooked was Ender’s Game.

Another one around the same time was Raptor Red.

Nothing too crazy, I was a kid after all.

The wizard of the Emerald City by Alexander Volkov

Richard Scarry’s “What do people do all day” is such a fun book that even now I wish I had again just to flip through the pages and see the intricacies of the drawings

Almost any Golden Book (Pokey Little Puppy) or

My Side of the Mountain (Jean Craighead George),

Paddington Bear books.

Along with titles others have mentioned (Scarry, etc.). These are firsts